v. rare. [ad. Gr. ἀφορίζ-ειν ‘to define,’ in mid. voice ‘to lay down determinate propositions,’ f. ἀφ’ = ἀπό off + ὁρίζ-ειν to set bounds, f. ὅρ-ος boundary. The English sense is taken from APHORISM.] To write or speak in aphorisms; to make terse general reflections.
1669. Address to Hopeful Young Gentry England, 55. Tacitus himself aphorizeth no less in his short and poynant conclusion with Messalina.
1824. Coleridge, Aids to Refl., 17. This twofold act of circumscribing and detaching, when it is exerted by the mind on subjects of reflection and reason, is to aphorize, and the result an Aphorism.
1860. A. L. Windsor, Ethica, vii. 326. It is of course natural that such unfortunates as Crœsus and Demaratus should take every opportunity for aphorizing on the instability of human greatness.
